Diphtheria Outbreak: NCDC says death toll has risen to 38

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has reported that 38 people have died as a result of the current diphtheria outbreak that has spread to four states in the nation.

This was announced yesterday in Abuja during an update on the COVID-19 pandemic response and developments in the health sector, which was hosted by the Federal Ministry of Health and other partners. The NCDC's director general, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, made the announcement.

According to him, there are now 123 verified cases in all, spread across the four states.

According to him, as of yesterday, Yobe has 17 confirmed cases and three deaths, five confirmed cases and three deaths in Lagos, 100 confirmed cases and 32 deaths in Kano, and one confirmed case and no deaths in Osun.

He said, “Given the sub-optimal coverage for the third dose of diphtheria containing pentavalent vaccine (54% – 2021 Nigeria Immunization Coverage Survey) in the country, we expect more cases from more states.”

Adetifa added that there were initial reports of 117 suspected and 12 confirmed cases of the illness in epidemiological weeks 49 of 2022 and week two of 2023. The agency had also been informed of an increase in suspected Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM) cases in Jigawa State, she said.

Also present at the event was Dr. Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), who reported that as of January 20th, Nigeria had completely immunized 65,176,784 (56.2%) eligible persons with COVID-19 vaccine and 77,070,988 (66.4%) eligible persons had received at least one dose of the vaccine.

A total of 10,390,911 people, he claimed, had received the booster shot, and Jigawa, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Osun, and Kano continued to lead all states in terms of eligible populations that had received all COVID-19 vaccines.

The five states with the worst COVID-19 immunization rates, according to Shuaib, who was represented by Dr. Abdullahi Bulama Garba, Director of Planning, Research, and Statistics, were Rivers, Bayelsa, Ondo, Kogi, and Ebonyi.

Dr. Osagie Ehanire, the minister of health, urged Nigerians to ignore a letter that was going viral on social media and claimed that some Nigerians had been found to have an undiscovered dangerous disease in China.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control, who often identify such epidemics, were yet to comment on it or issue an advisory, according to him.

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